Most of the time, the terms and conditions of a product or service have more to do with lawyers protecting the company in case they're caught doing something than what they've actually implemented ... Essentially, Microsoft's lawyers may not know whether Kinect is being used to gather information about individuals but the lawyers created the legal agreement in case it turns out that they're gathering and storing information about you.

That's fuckin hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!

THe LAZORZ never gets old !

no, you don't understand. We don't want to just allow the police to have cameras and microphones. We want illegal search and seizure at any whim. That cop needs a new wardrobe? no problem, just walk right in and take the clothse as "evidence". umm.. I mean, what if someone is hiding weed off camera? only an idiot would put it in front of the camera or talk about it, so searching is the only way.

Sony has been doing this for over 2 years (see link) and it doesn't look like PS3 owners have been adversely affected so I don't get why it's suddenly a problem now.  Nintendo also will release your online communications to law enforcement if needed.

http://gizmodo.com/5066501/new-playstation-3-terms-of-service-sony-can-record-anything-you-say-or-do-online

True, the companies have the right to give anything they store on their servers to the police, this should be no shocker. The same goes for your e-mails and any other online transaction. Every word typed on VGC could theortically be handed over to the government

However, that doesn't mean we should support the government using cameras within our house. I want to be able to enjoy using my electronics without any spying. I recently heard of a school system that used the cameras on the school laptops to spy on students in their homes. They made some dumb excuss and they probably had it in the ToS, but it was a huge breach in personal privacy and a huge backlash for the school.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_laptops_spying_on_students

lmao that made me laugh

I didn't know that about Sony (I own neither PS3 nor XB360) - does the PS eye have an online connection as well though? This is not about what I do online (even ISPs probably have some terms about online communications), this is about placing a device in my home that can track what I am doing in my house. Do i think MS as a company will misuse this (except for perhaps tracking pirates)? Not really. But I can see some MS employees doing it as a private initiative  (I can see lots of uses - Paparazzi buying their way into the homes of celebs, private detectives, law enforcemnet agencies of course, thieves planning on robbing a house). All that of course if I correctly understood what can be done with Kinect...

Lol. Why microsoft might enjoy it.

I hope your kidding with these statements.  It's really scary that anyone would even CONSIDER supporting such a ridiculous invasion of privacy.

Agreed, they might never use Kinect to do that. Still not fun to know they might, but I tend to think they will not.